Five youth-owned Barbadian businesses are among 20 companies competing in the United Nations Development Programme’s Caribbean Innovation Challenge (CIC).
Barbados has the largest number of entrants in the competition which will see teams being rewarded for their social, economic and environmental projects.
The local ventures, which were chosen from among almost 500 regional entries, are natural soap manufacturer Ibis Bath & Body, fashion design company Shakad Designs, Red Donor – a crowd-sourcing platform for blood donations, MedRegis – a consolidated medical registry system, and textbook-rental business Book Line.
Book Line, which has been operating for more than a year, was the brainchild of Rochelle Walrond, 22, who runs the business along with Ivan Cox, 27, Kevin Bishop, 24, and Chenika Moore, 21.
Walrond told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY they were all University of the West Indies students who faced the challenge of buying “expensive” textbooks.
They started out by renting books on behalf of current and former students until they accumulated enough resources to purchase “one or two books” of their own.
The entrepreneurs have no shortage of demand and said they find it hard sometimes to meet requests for books.
While they plan to increase their supply in the future, their focus for the next few days will be finalizing their exhibit and presentation for the CIC Finals, Expo and Awards Ceremony. It will take place Thursday and Friday at the Hilton Barbados. (NB)